The only available computer in the Internet cafe was next to a middle aged farang woman, the sort that unaffectionately is known in Asia as a Fat White Cow.
Her name was Karen and she was from Nebraska. Not that I would ever spy on someone’s email when it is up on their screen. I could not help but notice.
While I am a model of non-spying in Internet cafes this shameless woman openly stared at my computer screen. In particular she looked at the chest photo that is the header of this blog. She must have spent a dirty half second on that before turning back to her own business.
I was embarrassed. And I blamed myself for getting embarrassed. OK, here I was in Thailand, a middle aged white man with a site up called Gay Boy Thailand. Here comes Karen from Nebraska. Karen is an against-sinful-things kind of person. She would certainly be strongly against Chalerm and I and our lifestyle. She would disapprove of the Western gay community in Thailand and what we are up to.
How could I know her opinions? I didn’t but I looked at her face, her dress, her hair, her glasses. It spelled “old maid devoted to doing good”. I could also tell from where she worked - a certain institution in Bangkok. Again, not that I would ever spy on people but some things are obvious.
Why can’t I ignore Fat White Cows like Karen? Why do they have power over me when they give me nasty stares? Why do they have moral authority even if I disagree with their views? It was as if I was ten years old and my school teacher chided me for reading naughty magazines. I had no defence.
I wish there was something clever I could do to break her moral certitude. Look up some hard-core p**n to see if I could scare her away? Pick up my phone and talk dirty to someone? Pretend she was not there? Say “Sex is a great thing. You should try it.”?
February 24th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Whenever I see farangs like this I think “You’re not in (insert redneck home country) now - this is the REAL world. You’re the minority here. Get used to it.”
If I were you I’d call Chalerm and summon him to come and put his tongue down your throat.
Of course that’s not very Thai, but she doesn’t know that.
February 24th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
This kind of woman is sure that her moral worldview is the only correct one. That is why she is in Thailand - to teach Thais how wrong they are.
February 24th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
We all know this kind of people. And we know how absolutely fruitless their efforts are, especially in Thailand
February 24th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
The best punishment for such people is simply being themselves.
February 24th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
This woman “to teach Thai’s how wrong they are” HAHAHAHAHA……..as if they’d listen to a fat old Farang do-gooder! Best to stay in bible-belt Nebraska cultivating their children and the other vegetables too!
February 24th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Yeh, it sucks to be judged. Especially by ugly American women. Five years ago my Japanese boyfriend and I were vacationing on Phuket. One day we took a kayak tour, and all day long this gaggle of young American women were just staring us down something awful. Toward the end of the day, while my boyfriend was using the toilet, one of them worked up the nerve to come and ask me questions about who I was with (already explained), how long we’d known each other (four years at that point) and, finally, how old he was. Not that it was any of her business, but I told her; he was 28 at the time. Upon hearing the answer and without thinking, she blurted out, “Oh, that’s good!” She and her friends had obviously spent the entire day feeling all icky about “the pedophile over there with the young Thai boy.” So what if my boyfriend (who is as thin as all the Japanese boys whose pictures you post on this site and still looks much younger than he is) had been Thai? So what if he had been younger than 28? And so what if we had only met a couple nights before in Bangkok? What that women deserved was the loudest, meanest-spirited “Fuck you!” I could muster. But all I could do was give her a blank stare.
And to this day I still feel guilty about that.
February 26th, 2007 at 4:57 am
well leave the closed minded people alone.. they will deserve what is coming down the road… karma is great that way!